November 22, 2009Reuters is reporting that Ciena has emerged victorious in the auction for most of Nortel's Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) optical and Ethernet assets. Ciena will pay $769 million for the assets -- well above the $521 million it originally bid.
Nokia Siemens Networks issued a statement just after midnight this morning confirming that "it did not submit the highest bid for Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets."
The company statement added, "Nokia Siemens Networks believes that its final offer represented fair value for the assets, and further bidding could not be financially justified."
The auction process started Friday morning and lasted until Sunday.
Reuters quotes an anonymous source as revealing that Ciena will surrender $530 million in cash and $239 million in convertible notes.
This is the second portion of Nortel that Nokia Siemens Networks attempted to buy without success. The company paired with One Equity Partners, a private equity firm, in pursuit of the MEN assets. The NSN/One Equity Partners pairing apparently was the only competition Ciena faced in the bidding.
More details here in a separate article.
